If You Invested $1,000 in Riot Blockchain at the COVID-19 Low, You’d Get That Much Now – Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT)
Investors who bought stocks during the 2020 covid-19 market crash have generally experienced some big gains over the past two years. But there is no doubt that some large companies have performed better than others since the beginning of the pandemic.
Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT benefited from financial shutdowns around the world, enabling a broad shift from cash to digital payments. This created a tailwind for cryptocurrency stocks.
The more than $6 trillion in US government stimulus also sparked concerns about rising inflation levels.
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As a result, cryptocurrency prices rose (good news for Riot’s Bitcoin mining business). Riot owns 6,775 BTC, operates a fleet of 55,728 miners and has a total hash rate capacity of 5.6 exahashes (5.6 billion billion hash calculations) per second. Here’s a look at the 2020 course:
- At the beginning of 2020, Riot was trading around $1.14
- In early March, when news of the virus’ spread in China fueled concerns about a US pandemic, the stock was still trading at $1.16.
- On March 18, Riot plunged to its pandemic low of 51 cents as global stock markets tumbled.
- The stock bounced off that level as the S&P 500 began to stabilize and the government began printing money.
- By April 6, Riot shares were back above $1.
- In mid-December, rising crypto prices send Riot shares above the $10 level.
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Riot In 2021, 2022, Beyond: January 19, 2021, influential Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk added #Bitcoin to his Twitter bio.
“In hindsight it was inevitable,” Musk tweeted.
On February 8, Tesla announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and would begin accepting it as payment for Tesla vehicles.
The Tesla news sent Riot shares skyrocketing to as high as $79.50 on February 17th.
Unfortunately, Bitcoin prices peaked at $68,789 in November 2021 and began to decline in 2022 amid aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and a broad market rotation out of risk assets.
Volatility in the crypto market was exacerbated by survivability in the crypto lending market, leading to bankruptcies of high-profile crypto lenders. Riot shares fell during the “crypto winter” of 2022, falling as low as $4.02 in July. Bitcoin prices have rebounded from June lows and are now trading at $20,422; Riot shares are back up to $6.33.
At this point, investors who bought Riot the day it hit the pandemic and held on have generated an impressive total return on investment. In fact, $1,000 in Riot stock purchased on March 17, 2020 would be worth about $8,474 today.
Looking ahead, analysts expect Riot stock to rebound over the next 12 months. The average price target among the 10 analysts covering the stock is $12.63, suggesting a 79.5% upside from today’s levels.
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